I like the way you tried to word it, sister; it kind of felt that way for me. I "ended up" with GAD, because the various traumas weren't resolved/worked on at the time and they just seemed to continue/fester and be added to. It's like a little bit of sticky crud and how that builds up (mold/mildew? :-) I use to introduce/explain myself as "being afraid of my shadow." My T helped once by explaining to me that I was afraid of being afraid. I think the more tools one gets to help with that, to recognize and deal with things as they come up, the better things get. Then the past things do a better job of staying in the past and being the past size they really are (like the chairs in a first grade classroom which are the "right" size for first graders and don't look/feel small at the time but as an adult are tiny).